Turvey backs former rival to impress

24 January 2013

Test driver Oliver Turvey says he feels former rival Sergio Perez will be a worthy addition to the McLaren line-up for the 2013 F1 season.

Perez joins McLaren this season after the departure of Lewis Hamilton and will partner Jenson Button in a race seat, with Turvey again holding a test driver position with the Woking-based team alongside a racing programme with JOTA Sport in the European Le Mans Series.

The pair are no strangers to each other having gone head-to-head in both British F3 and GP2.

Turvey has the upper hand when the duo found themselves in contention for the 2008 British F3 title, finishing second to Jaime Alguersuari with Perez fourth, while in GP2, Perez finished four spots higher than Turvey during the 2010 campaign, where he was second to Pastor Maldonado.

“I raced against Sergio when we were in British F3, and I beat him in the championship!” the Cumbrian racer said. “I also raced against him in GP2, so I know Sergio very well and have a lot of respect for him as a driver. He is very quick and also a very good racer as he showed at Sauber; particularly last season. I'm looking forward to working with and we have a strong team for the season ahead.”

Turvey himself is set to see any on-track opportunities limited for the season ahead, but said he was excited by the prospect of helping with development of McLaren's 2013 car in the simulator.

“There is limited testing for everyone,” he said, “but this season there is one less test as the Mugello session that I drove in last year has been dropped, so there aren't many opportunities. Hopefully I'll get a run in the Young Driver Test but I'm in the simulator every week. Ten years ago I'd have been on the track instead but we are carrying out the same investigations and its great to be helping with the development of the car.

“The work we do in the simulator is all very unseen, but it's an interesting role to have with my engineering background and something I enjoy. I'm happy to help in the development of the car and as I was coming through single-seaters I looked up at McLaren so I'm fortunate to be one of their drivers.”